AFP news agency, which has paid its freelancers to cover the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023, now calls on the Jewish state to help evacuate them and their families from war-torn Gaza – and other media outlets are helping amplify the wire agency’s plea.
In a statement published on Tuesday (July 22), AFP said that despite their “exemplary courage,” its freelancers face an “appalling situation” in Gaza, due to hunger and deteriorating living conditions caused by the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
The agency, however, conveniently omits the fact that its so-called “courageous” freelancers infiltrated Israel to document the murders and abductions of Israelis during the attack that triggered the war.
Their graphic images from that day are still on sale, with prices ranging from 150-275 GBP (203-372 US dollars). Some are even labeled as “Pictures of the Day.”
Related Reading: AFP Admits Caving Into Hamas
AFP doesn’t mention the full names of its suffering freelancers, and there are no full credits on the photos.
Whether or not they were taken by the same individuals, it doesn’t change the fact: AFP crews infiltrated Israel on October 7 and aided Hamas’s barbaric propaganda.
And the question remains: Does AFP think this kind of work, photos taken by those who stood shoulder to shoulder with the terrorists as they brutalized innocent civilians, is courageous?
Does the agency still transfer a portion of the profit it makes selling those gruesome pictures to the photographers and their families?
The agency’s statement claims the salary it pays to freelancers is not enough to purchase necessary goods in Gaza. Remember: this is the very same amount that they and other staffers (who were already safely evacuated) received to document the single largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
Why can’t the agency pay them extra if it values their work so much? Why does it publish a statement without their full names and titles if it is so proud of them?
We don’t question the suffering caused by war and harsh conditions. We don’t minimize anyone’s plight if it is real.
But two issues must be raised:
First, why should Israel treat AFP freelancers differently from any other Gazan, especially after they stood idly by as Israelis were brutalized and torn from their families?
And, in particular, after AFP admitted caving into Hamas when HonestReporting exposed that one of its Gaza journalists spoke in a promotional video for the terror group?
Second, why did media outlets report on AFP’s statement without verifying its freelancers’ claims or mentioning what they and their colleagues did on October 7, 2023?
The answer to both questions is that foreign media outlets believe their workers automatically deserve special treatment. But this may be valid only if they do their work ethically.
If they serve terrorist propaganda and make money doing so – as they did on October 7, 2023 – they lose any reliability or privilege.
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